Black Tom explosion

The Black Tom explosion was an act of arson by field agents of the Office of Naval Intelligence of the German Empire to destroy U.S.-made munitions awaiting shipment to the Allies during World War I. The explosions occurred on July 30, 1916, in New York Harbor, killing at least 7 people and wounding hundreds more. It also caused damage of military goods worth some $20,000,000 ($590 million in 2025 dollars). This incident, which happened before U.S. entry into World War I, also damaged the Statue of Liberty. It is one of the largest artificial non-nuclear explosions in history.

The term "Black Tom" originally referred to an island in New York Harbor next to Liberty Island, named for a "dark-skinned" fisherman who inhabited the island for many years. The island was artificial, created by land fill around a rock of the same name, which had been a local hazard to navigation. Being largely built from city refuse, it developed a reputation as an unseemly environmental hazard. The island was the site of two different explosions. The first occurred on January 26, 1875, when an accidental explosion in a powder factory killed four people. The more famous and deadly explosion occurred on July 30, 1916. By 1880, the island was transformed into a 25-acre (10 ha) promontory, and a causeway and railroad had been built to connect it with the mainland to use as a shipping depot. Between 1905 and 1916, the Lehigh Valley Railroad, which owned the island and causeway, expanded the island with land fill, and the entire area was annexed by Jersey City. A 1 mi (1.6 km)-long pier on the island housed a depot and warehouses for the National Dock and Storage Company. Black Tom Island is now part of Liberty State Park.

Black Tom was a major munitions depot for the northeastern United States. Until April 6, 1917, the United States was neutral in respect to World War I and its munitions companies earlier in the war could sell to any buyer. Due to Royal Navy's blockade of Germany, however, only Allied Governments could purchase American munitions. As a result, Imperial Germany sent spies to the United States to disrupt by any means necessary the production and delivery of war munitions intended to kill German soldiers on the battlefields of the Great War.

On the night of the Black Tom explosion, July 30, 1916, about 2,000,000 pounds (910 t) of small arms and artillery ammunition were stored at the depot in freight cars and on barges, including 100,000 pounds (45 t) of TNT on Johnson Barge No. 17. All were waiting to be shipped to Russia. Jersey City's Commissioner of Public Safety, Frank Hague, later said he had been told the barge was "tied up at Black Tom to avoid a twenty-five dollar charge".

After midnight, a series of small fires were discovered on the pier. Some guards fled, fearing an explosion. Others attempted to fight the fires and eventually called the Jersey City Fire Department. At 2:08 am, the first and largest of the explosions took place. Around 2:40 am, the second and smaller explosion occurred. A notable location for one of the first major explosions was around the Johnson Barge No. 17, which contained 50 tons of TNT and 417 cases of detonating fuses.

Fragments from the explosion traveled long distances: some lodged in the Statue of Liberty, and others in the clock tower of The Jersey Journal building in Journal Square over 1 mile (1.6 km) away, stopping the clock at 2:12 am. The explosion was the equivalent of an earthquake measuring between 5.0 and 5.5 on the Richter scale and was felt as far away as Philadelphia. Windows were broken as far as 25 miles (40 km) away, including thousands in Lower Manhattan. Some window panes in Times Square were shattered. The stained glass windows in St. Patrick's Church were destroyed. The outer wall of Jersey City's City Hall was cracked and the Brooklyn Bridge was shaken. People as far away as Maryland were awakened by what they thought was an earthquake.

Property damage from the attack was estimated at $20,000,000 (equivalent to about $592,000,000 in 2025). On the island, the explosion destroyed over one hundred railroad cars, thirteen warehouses, and left a 375-by-175-foot (110 by 50 m) crater at its source. The damage to the Statue of Liberty was estimated to be $100,000 (equivalent to about $2,960,000 in 2025), and included damage to the skirt and torch.

There were several reported fatalities in the explosion: the barge captain, Jersey City Police Department officer James F. Doherty, Lehigh Valley Railroad chief of police Joseph Leyden, and ten-week-old infant Arthur Tosson. One contemporary newspaper report estimated as many as seven deaths in the attack. Immigrants being processed at Ellis Island had to be evacuated to Manhattan Island.^{[citation needed]}